


Fixer Upper

by princessdarthvader



Category: Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders (Video Blogging RPF) - Fandom
Genre: Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Light Angst, Multi, Self-Doubt, but mostly just fluff, but no slurs or anything, idk its so different to the things id normally write whats happening, its a human AU, its just a domestic little scene, this is the first fic ive posted so be kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 18:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14170821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessdarthvader/pseuds/princessdarthvader
Summary: Patton opened the door of their new home with a gleeful grin. It swung open, clouds of dust forming around it. He turned to the others.“So, what do you think?” He asked, letting the others walk inside first.Their new home is a little worn at the edges, but it's nothing a little slice of family life can't fix, right?





	Fixer Upper

Patton opened the door of their new home with a gleeful grin. It swung open, clouds of dust forming around it. He turned to the others.  
“So, what do you think?” He asked, letting the others walk inside first.  
Roman scratched at his nose, his allergies clearly playing up with the dust floating around the room.  
“It’s… dusty,” Virgil mumbled, not entirely convinced by the space.

The was a single wide open room. It looked like an old warehouse. Virgil wasn’t entirely unconvinced it wasn’t. At one end, wooden boards covered up what they could only assume was a window. The light flickered as though it hadn’t been used in years, which it probably hadn’t. Virgil should probably give credit to the light for managing to work at all.  
He noticed Patton glance at him, a flicker of concern and hurt that only Patton could really achieve. Virgil sighed. “But it’s nice, I suppose.”  
Logan rolled his eyes at the two of them. “It is indeed spacious. I wonder how we’ll manage to divvy the area between the four of us. Renovating the space may take a lot of our remaining money, which isn’t ideal.”  
Patton’s smile dropped slightly. “I was…” he paused. “I was thinking, you know, that we could… share a room? Even for just a bit?” He sounded nervous to speak. “We already mostly ignored the separate room system we had at our last place. The only times we actually slept in separate rooms was when the company of all four of us got a little too much for… some of us.”  
He meant Virgil; obviously; but he wasn’t going to throw him under the bus like that.

“We could make maybe… like a single separate room, with a couch, or beanbags, or a mattress, and that can be a cool-down room. That way, we don’t have to split up four whole different rooms and only end up using one.”  
The others pondered for a moment. Logan seemed to be recalculating in his head. “Where would this… cool down room be?”  
Patton perked up at this question. Evidently, he’d been prepared. He called them too follow him over to a space in the middle of the room. All three of them watched as Patton bent down and opened a latch, a section of the floor inclining into the air, revealing a smaller room underneath.  
“There’s actually a fair amount of space in the basement. I was thinking we could… figure out a way to get some good ventilation, and maybe a source of natural light of some sort. Fix it up with all you need for some time alone, and it could work for when… people need space. Not much noise from the outside world, but still accessible if help is needed.  
Patton was now looking directly at Virgil. He was speaking tentatively. “I… know its a bit of a fixer-upper… but it will be good. I know it will.”

There was barely a pause before Roman ran forwards with an ecstatic gasp. “Oh, we’ll have such a great time! Designing our own room, finding decorations and doing all the interior design… and OH! Can you imagine, over in that corner, we have a little lounge, and its all cozy and near the window, but then we can get one of those fireplaces and sit by that and drink hot cocoa and, really, this is the best option we could have had! Think of all the creative freedom we have!” And he continued to scour the room for more inspiration. Virgil could tell he was silently mapping out areas of the house and designating colour schemes. All of them would have a say, obviously. Just, Roman would have the biggest. And that was okay, because of all of them, Roman was the best at designing things.  
Logan nodded. “Yes. I believe this will do. Our budget is significantly higher than expected. I’m impressed you were able to find a place as functional as this for so cheap. It appears the electricity does, indeed, work, and with the clearing of dust and some vigorous cleaning, surely it will be liveable, at least,” he checked his phone, clearly studying their budget. “Say, do you know about the plumbing in this building?”  
Patton shook his head.  
“Very well. I will figure it out. Don’t make too much of a mess without me,” he called behind him as he walked back outside, his phone to his ear.  
That’s what Logan did. Assured everything is in working order. Made sure their home was liveable before having any aesthetic preferences. Balancing the budget. Keeping them alive. Logan was the smartest of them.

Patton looked to Virgil, and he felt small. He knew he should be grateful for their new house, especially since he’d been the reason they were kicked out of the last (the others had refused to let him acknowledge it in that way, but he knew it to be true). He knew he should be thanking them for not leaving him with the mess he’d created. For never leaving him. He should be glad that his boyfriends had never abandoned him, no matter what. But he was unsure.  
Because that’s what Virgil did. He was unsure. He was nervous. Every new project, every new idea, he wouldn’t let them do until he was absolutely certain it was safe.  
“It looks… old,” he muttered, looking around at the rickety building. “Are we sure it won’t collapse?”  
Patton nodded. “It’s the sturdiest kinda building we could find,” he assured. “Wouldn’t even collapse in a hurricane. But that won’t matter, because any hurricanes around here we’ll spend in the basement. Completely sturdy.”  
Virgil chewed his lip. “What about the dust and cobwebs? You’re scared of spiders, Patton. Aren’t you worried we’ll have creepy crawly death dealers wanting their home back?”  
Patton shuddered slightly, and Virgil felt guilty for asking. But it was important to him. Not even for his own sake. If Patton saw a spider, Virgil didn’t want to think about his boyfriend dealing with such terror.  
“Roman will clear all of that up,” Patton responded once he’d regained his composure. “And no creepy crawly death dealer is a match for our prince.”  
Virgil snickered slightly at the thought. “What if he gets bitten? Or the ladder falls underneath him when he’s clearing the corners? Or he sneezes and falls and gets a concussion and passes out?” He knew his mind was wandering slightly. Cognitive distortions, Logan had called them. But he couldn’t stop it. He always leapt to the worst possible scenario, no matter what. He couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to any of them, and he had the power to stop it.

Patton’s arms pulled him into an embrace. “You know none of that will happen,” he whispered quietly. “You’re leaping to conclusions again. I know you can’t help it, but you need to understand it’ll be okay.”  
Virgil chewed his lip harder. He’d been trying to get better. He really had. But nothing ever worked to that easily. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.  
“Don’t apologise,” Patton told him. “You don’t need to. You never need to,” he mumbled, pulling Virgil tighter. “You have valid concerns. Of course, it’s always possible any of those things could happen. But we’ll have Logan hold the ladder. You know he’d never get distracted by anything, and there’s no way a ladder would fall down under his watch.”  
Virgil nodded.  
“The hospital isn’t far from here. You can be on phone duty. Smallest sign of something that’s gone wrong and it can be up to you to call for help. Since you’re always the one who notices danger,” Patton told him, with an air to his voice that almost forced Virgil to believe him.  
Virgil nodded again.  
“The house is still new. We just gotta clear out some of that old, broken stuff, and fill it with love; fill it with family. It might creak a little at night, or… have fallen on hard times recently… but just watch. Because I know that we’ll build it back up. We’ll make it family - uh - home.” Patton glanced down at him, pulling away slightly. “How does that sound?”  
Virgil snickered after a moment. “Are we still talking about the house?” he asked softly, his face slowly breaking into a smile.  
Patton beamed back at him. “Of course, who else would I be referring to?”

Virgil rolled his eyes and stepped away after a moment. Patton had a point. He’d seen first hand just how incredibly his boyfriends worked to turn old, broken down fragments of a whole and make it okay again. And make it feel… alive again. He hid his shaking hands in the pocket of his hoodie. It had been he who had finally agreed to let them fly the rainbow flag outside. He’d tried to insist it would get them in trouble, and he’d finally given in. He shouldn’t have. He let them down then.  
It had been he who had struggled to hide the letter they’d received from the others. He’d been the only one home. He’d brought the flag inside and stuffed the colourful letter from their neighbours into his messy desk drawer. He couldn’t let them see it. He couldn’t bear to see the hurt in Patton’s eyes, or the anger in Roman’s. He couldn’t bear to see the confusion in Logan’s. And he’d hid it. And he’d let them down again.  
It had been he who had finally snapped at their neighbours, the fourth or fifth time they’d knocked. He’d been trying to read. Logan was home too, but he was too busy to answer the door. Virgil was overwhelmed. He’d talked to too many people. They’d received three phone calls, and he’d had to answer them all. They were complaints. Because no one wanted to live in the apartment complex with the quartet of queers. He was tired, and he was scared, and he didn’t want anyone else to have to deal with their impending doom. And he’d snapped at them. He’d told them to leave them alone.  
Logan had come to investigate, and was on Virgil’s side, but he was more articulate. More eloquent about it. Virgil couldn’t stand it.  
He’d let them down. Again and again. Every moment he’d been a part of their relationship he’d managed to screw up. He was amazed they even bother with him anymore. That they listened to his opinion anymore.  
But here Patton was, giving him a chance. Giving him another chance to not screw it up.  
“We’ll… make it our own?” he asked timidly, flinching at how small he sounded. He didn’t know what he was supposed to be. Everyone had a role in the family except him. He was the last of them to have joined. He was happier than he’d ever been before. But he couldn’t shake the notion that he wasn’t meant to be there.

Cognitive distortions.

Patton nodded. “It’s just another fixer upper. We’ll make it home. I promise.”  
And Patton never broke a promise. Virgil wasn’t sure how, but he knew Patton would make it happen eventually.  
“Then we’ll… have to make sure everything is… safe, yeah?” He looked around uncertainly. “We’ll change these old dusty blinds,” he stepped towards them and opened them up, warm sunlight filling up the room. He sneezed from the sudden bright light. “Once we get the chance, we’ll replace them with something more… our style. Like… kittens, or… Disney, or… something more neutral, I suppose. Like… blue, or… red?”  
Patton nodded keenly. “And we’ll have to probably hire a professional to connect our electricity and water and stuff. I have complete faith in Logan, but we don’t have the insurance to cover if something goes wrong,” he looked to Patton nervously.  
“And… that basement-room-thingy sounds great, but I’d recommend maybe keeping like… an emergency exit of some sort, if that’s possible? Just in case the hatch fails and someone… me, I guess, is stuck down there.”  
Patton nodded. “So, replace the blinds with something that matches all four of us and doesn’t contain what must be like a century’s worth of dust, hire someone who actually knows what they’re doing to hook up our electricity so Logan doesn’t die, and picture out an emergency exit from our cool down room?” he recounted. “Totally doable. I wouldn’t even have thought of that last one if you weren’t here. None of us would have. That’s why we have you.”  
Patton giggled slightly, but his words clung to Virgil’s soul. He pointed out flaws. What ifs. Things that were yet to be. Logan couldn’t work in faults. He assumed nothing would go wrong if they did it the right way. Patton was an optimist at heart and would never even dare to probe at the possibilities that resided in Virgil’s mind. Roman was a dreamer. He was never interested in the practical side of building a family and a home. That didn’t bother anyone, obviously. There were four of them. Too many cooks would spoil the broth, or whatever.

But Virgil couldn’t help but hang up on the idea that he had a purpose. When he pointed out flaws, he kept them safe. He made sure things wouldn’t go wrong.  
Maybe sometimes he got too hung up on something, but that’s why there were four of them, right?  
He took a deep breath and stepped outside to get some of their cleaning supplies.  
He caught Logan outside, just off the phone with the plumbing people.  
“Any problems?” Virgil asked, opening the car door and grabbing some spray and a feather duster.  
“None whatsoever. Now we only have to connect the water and electricity, and we’ll be lit, fam!” Logan replied. “How about with you?”  
Virgil paused for a moment to laugh at Logan’s attempt to use modern slang. “Would an electrician and a plumber doing those things for us factor into our budget?” he asked quietly.  
Logan glanced down at his phone for a moment. “I believe it would. Had a talk with Patton?” Logan asked.  
“Yeah,” Virgil replied. “I realised that maybe being cautious isn’t so much of a problem when it comes to this whole… fixing up our new house business.”  
Logan nodded. “I’ll be sure to let Roman know the plan, then,” he replied. “And I’ll grab those, if you want. Would you mind going and buying a broom and a mop?”

**Author's Note:**

> I've never really thought to post my own fanfiction anywhere online, but I wrote this and I felt like it was more cohesive as a story than anything else has been, so I hope you enjoyed it !!!


End file.
